Saturday, December 15, 2012

CASIGURAN CONTROVERSY; RH BILL

The Casiguran Controversy; the RH Bill

Joaquin G.
Bernas, S.J.

In my column last week I reported how the poor folks of Casiguran
who were marching to seek the help of the President saw the Apeco project in
their area. The following
day I received a call from Reli German who wanted me to listen to the side of
Apeco. I asked him to write down how Apeco saw things and to send me their
thoughts.

Now let me summarize the position of Apeco as contained in the
letter to me of Atty. Malcom I. Sarmiento, President and CEO of Apeco, as forwarded
to me by Reli German.

·The claim of the 120 marchers do not represent
the 3,000 households affected by the Apeco development.

·Those in the group who claim that their land was
forcibly taken by Apeco are in fact informal settlers in a school reservation
owned by Aurora State College of Technology.

·The 105-hectare property in contention was
originally designated as a school reservation by virtue of Proclamation No.
723, issued by American Governor-General Frank Murphy on August 21, 1934. The
Aurora National Fisheries School was created for this purpose. R.A. No. 7664,
which created ASCOT, later mandated the integration of this fisheries school,
and all its resources including the school reservation, with ASCOT. This cannot be used for anything other
than the original purpose.

·Despite this, APECO has included these informal
settlers among its housing beneficiaries under a program undertaken in
partnership with the National Housing Authority (NHA).

·True, there were 28 families displaced by the
construction of the airstrip but this is a project of the Civil Aviation
Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) which has extended to them financial
assistance and they have been included among the APECO-NHA housing
beneficiaries.

·On the issue of ancestral domain, APECO has
never conducted infrastructure development activities in any of the Dumagat
settlements within its coverage. We have already sought the help of the
National Commission on the Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) to facilitate Free and
Prior Informed Consent (FPIC).

·APECO recognizes the existence of ancestral
domain, and supports the IPs in acquiring their Certificate of Ancestral Domain
Title (CADT).

·APECO carries with it the mandate to acquire
lands on the condition that it provides just compensation in accordance with
law. Apeco has been acquiring and paying for lands almost twice the assessed
value.

·APECO has never resorted to the right of eminent
domain or expropriation to acquire lands. Neither has APECO coerced any one to
sell their land nor buy land at an unreasonably low price.

·APECO has no intention to buy lands in the San
Ildefonso Peninsula. We give due respect to the rights of existing integrated
social forestry (ISFs) beneficiaries in the area.

·That APECO has cut 10 hectares of centuries-old
mangroves to give way to its port is false and misleading. The port referred to
is a RORO port that is not within the boundaries of APECO.

·This port was built decades ago, and
rehabilitated by the Philippine Ports Authority as part of the previous administration’s
nautical highway program. APECO has absolutely nothing to do with this port.

·Regarding the supposed lack of consultation on
the creation of APECO, we continue to conduct consultations to raise awareness
about our development programs among the residents of Casiguran, as well as to
seek residents’ proposals on how APECO can more effectively help them. This was
followed by several barangay assemblies.

·APECO is for development --- for the people of
Aurora, supported by the people of Aurora. We appeal to those with vested
interests to stop spreading lies that only serve to jeopardize the future of
Aurora’s people.

Obviously these are issues of fact about which, from the quiet of
my room in the Ateneo Jesuit Residence, I am in no position to offer judgment.

Meanwhile, last week the Casiguran marchers had a long dialogue
with the President. The outcome of
that dialogue, I am told, disappointed the marchers. But as one consequence of that dialogue, the President
ordered an investigation to be made by government officials. I am sure that the investigators will
also listen to the Apeco people, if they have not done so yet. We await the outcome of that
investigation hopefully within the week.

My sense, correct me if I am wrong, is that the result of the
investigation will not satisfy the marchers and their supporters. The cultural roots of the problem are
too deep. Hence, whatever the
President’s decision might be, that will not be the end of the matter. There still is the judicial process
which can take care of both legal and factual issues. We should be hearing more about this.

* * * * *

My Stand on the RH Bill

I know that in its un-amended form the RH bill was not perfect
and I myself, mainly on constitutional and moral grounds, have offered
criticism and suggestions. While the bill has undergone extensive amendment, it
remains a work in progress – even as the Constitution is a work in progress.
But there are many valuable points in the bill which can serve the welfare of
the nation and especially of poor women who cannot afford the cost of medical
service. Let us not burn the house
to save a pig. The surviving pig
can be the subject of judicial challenge.

2 comments:

Dear Father Bernas,The prince of darkness acted as a suavely dressed, courteous young man and went into Padre Pio’s confessional… This is beloved St. Pio’s own account: “One day, while I was hearing confessions, a man came to the confessional where I was. He was tall, handsome, dressed with some refinement and he was kind and polite. He started to confess his sins, which were of every kind: against God, against man and against the morals. All the sins were obnoxious! I was disoriented, in fact for all the sins that he told me, but I responded to him with God’s Word, the example of the Church, and the morals of the Saints. But the enigmatic penitent answered me word for word, justifying his sins, always with extreme ability and politeness. He excused all the sinful actions, making them sound quite normal and natural, even comprehensible on the human level.. He continued this way with the sins that were gruesome against God, Our Lady, the Saints, always using disrespectful round-about argumentation. He kept this up even with with the foulest of sins that could be conjured in the mind of a most sinful man. The answers that he gave me with such skilled subtlety and malice surprised me. I wondered: who is he? What world does he come from? And I tried to look at him in order to read something on his face. At the same time I concentrated on every word he spoke, trying to discover any clue to his identity.. But suddenly; through a vivid, radiant and internal light I clearly recognized who he was. With a sound and imperial tone I told him: “Say long live Jesus, long live Mary!” As soon as I pronounced these sweet and powerful names, Satan instantly disappeared in a trickle of fire, leaving behind him an unbearable stench.” AS PADRE PIO DESCRIBED THE ENIGMATIC PENITENT "He excused all the sinful actions, making them sound quite normal and natural, even comprehensible on the human level." YOU, THE PRO-RH AND ALL YOUR EXPLANATIONS ARE COMPATIBLE WITH THE PENITENT.